


the burning bright

by kahvikummitus



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Stargazing, just pure self-indulgent fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 08:12:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16530794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kahvikummitus/pseuds/kahvikummitus
Summary: 13/Rose feat. stargazing, kissing, and a bad pun or two.





	the burning bright

**Author's Note:**

> So, Doctor Who fandom. It's been a while. (Six years, actually, since my last fics. They are not on AO3. Thank goodness.)
> 
> Fun fact: the first fic I ever wrote was a Doctor Who fic, with 9 and Rose and Jack. I was 12 years old. It was for a school assignment. It was also less cringy in context.
> 
> And now I'm 24 and gay and still writing Doctor/Rose fic, because the more things change the more they stay the same I guess ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

It's a clear night, far enough in the Earth's past for there to be no light pollution, and the moon is just a sliver in the corner of the sky. In short, it's Very Dark. The Doctor has been boasting with her "incredible visual acuity in low-light conditions, like a cat, Rose!" but given that she has followed this by immediately falling on her face, twice, Rose has some doubts.

"Maybe we should just stay near the TARDIS?"

"Oh, don't wander off, that's what I'm always telling you! You're learning, Rose!"

They settle just a few metres away from the TARDIS, the Doctor spreading out her coat for them to lay on.

"Right, impress me with your knowledge, then," Rose says. "What's up there?"

"Orion, right there," the Doctor says, though it's mostly to orient herself. "The Plough, which makes that the North Star..."

She takes Rose's hand in her own, and uses it to point out planets they've been to. Woman Wept, with the moon's crescent pointing right at it. New Earth, halfway across the sky.

"Oh, apple grass. Can we go again, just for the apple grass?"

"We could go right now," the Doctor says, turning to look at Rose, though she doesn't really want to go. It's very comfortable, despite the darkness and the slight chill to the air, and the hard ground beneath their backs. It's not actually comfortable at all - except Rose is there, and her hand is warm and soft. 

"We've been here five minutes, Doctor. Let's finish this romantic date before we go for another, alright?"

"Good, yes." She gives Rose's hand a squeeze, and Rose squeezes right back, and this goes on for a while.

"So which way's Raxa-- Raxacoricofallapatorius?" 

"Other side of the Earth, I'm afraid. Should do this from space sometime, shouldn't we, get some good views.”

“Yeah, we should.” The Doctor adds that to her mental list of Dates To Take Rose On; it's getting to be a very long list at this point, and she doesn't think they will ever get around to seeing all of the places and doing all of the things on it. There's just such a lot of things in the universe she wants to share with Rose – and still, at the end of the day, it's not about the places or things, because Rose is here, with her. There's nothing better than that.

\--

“What about constellations? Any you know, besides Orion and the Plough?”

The Doctor rattles off increasingly strange names, pointing with Rose's hand at spots in the sky. Rose suspects that a good number of them are made up, but says nothing, until the Doctor points at a seemingly random group of stars and declares that they are called the Rose.

“You made that one up, didn't you?”

“I swear that I did not.”

“I can't see it. Doesn't look like a rose.”

“You're one to talk, calling yourself Rose when you're clearly a person. Trying to fool everyone with all the pink and yellow, but I'm onto you, Rose.”

“And you have a medical degree, do ya?” Rose says, laughing. “Licensed to practise medicine?”

“I might be, I'll have to check. And hey, I could have a PhD, you know. Oh! I do have an honorary doctorate from the University of Cardiff!”

\--

After this, they get distracted kissing, slow and sweet, for a while. They break apart briefly when something in the Doctor's coat pocket starts digging into Rose's back, but get right back to it when they've fixed the issue.

“I could do this for hours,” Rose says. “Just kissing you.”

“I'm good with that.”

“But maybe somewhere more comfortable.” It's taken Rose a while to realise it, but she's shivering quite substantially and she's been too distracted to notice it. “Like inside.”

“Inside, yes, good. In the TARDIS, where it's less dark and more warm. Not as romantic, but we'll work on that.” They're getting up now, and the Doctor is shaking grass off her coat. “Oh, I've just thought of a good one!”

“What?”

“Ask me what my PhD is in, go on, ask me what I'm a doctor of.”

“Fine, what are you a doctor of?”

“Botany.” The Doctor is grinning so widely Rose wonders she's able to form words with her mouth. “And the plant I've specialised in is-- Rose Tyler. Genus Rose, species Tyler. Or would Tyler be the genus, technically? I don't know, I'm not a taxonomist.”

“That was a terrible joke, Doctor.”

“Yes, but it made you laugh, which is what really matters.”

Rose goes in for a kiss, but they're both still smiling too much for it to quite work, and the light hurts their eyes just a little as the Doctor pulls Rose into the TARDIS.

**Author's Note:**

> (Yes, that was a Patrick Wolf reference.)
> 
> I do actually know the difference between a constellation and an asterism, but it also seemed like the kind of thing that would be way too pedantic even for me.
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading! I'm jemandtherobots on tumblr if you want to find me for whatever reason :)


End file.
